William Bell Essentials

As a songwriter Memphis' William Bell proved one of soul music's great wordsmiths, writing “Born Under a Bad Sign” for Albert King and “You Don't Miss Your Water” for himself; the songs were respectively brought to rock audiences by Cream and The Byrds. As an artist Bell was a fixture on Stax Records for most of its run, with notable singles including “Private Number” with Judy Clay and “A Tribute to a King”, his ode to the recently deceased Otis Redding. He had a post-Stax hit with 1977's “Tryin' to Love Two” and continued to perform into the ‘10s.